English World
United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Great Britain, officially United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the British Isles, off Western Europe.
The country is often referred to simply as Britain. Technically, Great Britain comprises England; Wales; and Scotland on the island of Great Britain, while the United Kingdom includes Great Britain as well as Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland.
The Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands, in the English Channel, are dependencies of the crown, with their own systems of government.
Area - 94,525 sq mi (244,820 sq km)
Population (2005 est.) - 60,441,457
Capital and largest city - London, 11,219,000 (metro. area)
Other large cities - Glasgow; Birmingham; Liverpool; Edinburgh; Leeds; Bristol.
Monetary unit - Pound sterling (£)
Peolpe
Great Britain is the fourth most populous country in Europe. The English constitute more than 80% of the nation's inhabitants. The Scottish make up nearly 10%, and there are smaller groups of Irish and Welsh descent.
Great Britain's population has shown increasing ethnic diversity since the 1970s, when people from the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Africa, and China began immigrating.
Language
English is the universal language of Great Britain. In addition, about a quarter of the inhabitants of Wales speak Welsh and there are about 60,000 speakers of the Scottish form of Gaelic in Scotland.
The Church of England, also called the Anglican Church, is the officially established church in England. The Presbyterian Church of Scotland is legally established in Scotland.
There is complete religious freedom throughout Great Britain. By far the greatest number of Britons (some 27 million) are Anglicans, followed by Roman Catholics and other Christians. There are smaller minorities of Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists.
Government
Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy. The constitution exists in no one document but is a centuries-old accumulation of statutes, judicial decisions, usage, and tradition. The hereditary monarch, is almost entirely limited to exercising ceremonial functions.
Sovereignty rests in Parliament, which consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the crown. Effective power resides in the Commons. The executive - the cabinet of ministers headed by the prime minister - is usually drawn from the party holding the most seats in the Commons.
Geography
The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) and Northern Ireland. England, in the southeast part of the British Isles, is separated from Scotland on the north by the granite Cheviot Hills.
Important rivers - the Thames, Humber, Tees, Tyne, the Severn and Wye, the Mersey and Ribble.
Economy
Great Britain is one of the world's leading industrialized nations. It has achieved this position despite the lack of most raw materials needed for industry. The country also must import about 40% of its food suplies. Thus, its prosperity has been dependent upon the export of manufactured goods in exchange for raw materials and foodstuffs.
Agriculture - cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, poultry.
Fishing industry - cod, haddock, mackerel, whiting, trout, salmon and shellfish.
Industries - machine tools, electric power equipment, automation equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, electronics and communications equipment, metals, chemicals, coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food processing, textiles, clothing.
Labor force - agriculture 1%, industry 25%, services 74% (1999).
Natural resources - coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica, arable land.
History
Stonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are what remains of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed.
Roman invasions of the 1st century B.C. brought Britain into contact with continental Europe. When the Roman legions withdrew in the 5th century A.D., Britain fell easy prey to the invading hordes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland.
It was not until the 10th century that the country finally became united under the kings of Wessex. Following the death of Edward the Confessor (1066), a dispute about the succession arose, and William, duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman conquest introduced Norman French law and feudalism.
In 1215 King John (1199–1216) was forced to sign the Magna Carta, which awarded the people, especially the nobles, certain basic rights. Edward I (1272–1307) continued the conquest of Ireland, reduced Wales to subjection, and made some gains in Scotland.
Edward III's claim to the throne of France led to the Hundred Years' War (1338–1453) and the loss of almost all the large English territory in France.
Between 1455 and 1485, the Wars of the Roses, a struggle for the throne between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, ended in the victory of Henry Tudor (Henry VII).
During the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547), the church in England asserted its independence from the Roman Catholic Church.
Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I made England become a world power. Elizabeth's heir was a Stuart - James VI of Scotland - who joined the two crowns as James I (1603–1625).
The Stuart kings incurred large debts and were forced either to depend on Parliament for taxes or to raise money by illegal means. In 1642, war broke out between Charles I and a large segment of the Parliament; Charles was defeated and executed in 1649, and the monarchy was then abolished. After the death in 1658 of Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector, Charles II was placed on the throne (1660).
The Victorian era, named after Queen Victoria (1837–1901), saw the growth of a democratic system of government that had begun with the Reform Bill of 1832.
King Edward VIII succeeded to the throne in 1936, but abdicated on Dec. 11, 1936 (in order to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Warfield Simpson), in favor of his brother, who became George VI.
Fonts:
Infoplease
www.stats.govt.nz/quick-facts/default.htm
Westminster Cathedral
Legoland
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